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Doc: Where we're standing now, Bengals look like 7-9

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis will be entering his 15th season with the team in 2017.(Photo: Kareem Elgazzar)

Woe are The Men. We’ve been awfully kind to them since the 2010 reboot, and they’ve deserved it, mostly. Smart drafts, patience, loyalty rewarded, judicious free-agent signings that didn’t break the bank. Very good results, at least until Game 17.

That was then. Now?

In two offseasons, they’ve done a very nice job dismantling all that.

Don’t lecture us about The System, free agency, roster churn, salary caps and the like. We’re aware of all that. We understand that players come and go. What we don’t understand are the choices being made.

Yesterday, the Bengals brought back a player that as recently as a year ago they had no further use for. A guy who underachieved his way through his first couple seasons here, then as he developed had injury issues that persist to this day. Andre Smith left for Minnesota after last year, where he missed 12 games with a torn triceps. The Vikings didn’t think Smith was important enough to keep, even though he’s just 30 years old. He hasn’t played a full season in four years. In his eight years as a pro, Smith has played a full season exactly twice.

The Bengals potentially will play Smith at right guard. He’s never played guard in the NFL. They label this “flexibility.’’

Meantime, the Bengals let their most durable player (not just O-lineman, player) walk. Because. . . because. . . because they don’t believe guards should make a truckload of money. Even though the Bengals have a truckload of money to spend.

CLOSE

Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis discusses the free-agency period.

Also yesterday, they lost Rex Burkhead, who will absolutely shine next fall in New England. They retain Two-Yard Jeremy, though. For the record, Burkhead ran for 305 yards in the six games after Gio Bernard’s ACL tear, and at 4.7 YPC. Hill went for 216 and 2.5.

And Adam Jones and Rey Maualuga are still on the roster.

And they’re pondering drafting Joe Mixon.

How the (could have been) mighty are falling.

It’s just March, yes. The draft looms (it can’t be helped) there will be other players without jobs. Things could become a whole lot better by mid-July. But we don’t major in clairvoyancy around This Space. We comment on what is in front of us. What’s in front of us looks like 7-9.

Now, then. . .

C’MON, MICK. . . What is the point in continually bashing the NCAA, other than a satisfying personal spleen-vent? Cronin made a point of saying he didn’t lose any sleep over the NCAA’s decision making. Yeah?

CLOSE

AAC disrespected, coach says

From the sound of it, the NCAA is so deep into his head, it tells him when he can dream. From The Enquirer:

"Anybody that challenges them, they’re gonna say that they’re off base and they’re a bad guy, and threaten to reprimand them. It’s comical. It doesn’t bother me, even in the least bit. I don’t think about it at all.”

Word is, Bohn received a letter from the NCAA, asking Mick to cool it. That was after the first blast a few weeks ago.

“In my opinion, us and SMU are as good as 3 seeds, had the same kind of year as 3 seeds,” Cronin said.

Well, OK. If the Bearcats advance to the 32 and beat UCLA, Mick’s beef gets validated. Until then, why talk about it? Even if he makes good points (He does. Of course the NCAA wants sexy matchups to sell tickets and jack ratings) they do his team no favors. We haven’t heard anything from the SMU folks.

You can’t fight city hall, my friend.

ON THE FLIP, A NICE PIECE on sportsonearth about Mick’s perspective since the heart issue features this nugget re Kyle Washington:

"When it came across the ticker in April that he was transferring, I called him," Cronin said of Washington. "And I said, you better pick it up, because I'm going to call you all night until you turn your phone off or answer it. And when I got him, he said, 'I'm not going to rush.' I said, 'That's fine, just know, nobody's going to recruit you harder. You belonged here when you came out, and you belong here now. And I'm going to prove it to you.'"

MEANTIME, the game’s on truTV. UC plays Kansas State, the winner of that play-in slog Tuesday night. I kept hearing how great John Collins was. Maybe, but not last night. Last night, Collins looked like he wanted to be anywhere (in the NBA) but Dayton. K-State looked undersized, but aggressive. Didn’t shoot well or handle the ball well. If the Bearcats don’t win this one, Mick should send the NCAA a letter of apology.

BEFORE WE FORGET. . . The Burkhead signing is why the Pats are the Pats. Good player, underused and undervalued. Great team guy, tough, will be the next James White/Danny Woodhead in that system.

Well, I think there are like characteristics about all those guys, but the one that’s glaringly obvious is they’re all winners. When Tony La Russa finally won a World Series, Bob Gibson walked up to him and said, 'Welcome to the Cardinals. Now, you’ve finally arrived. Now, you’re part of the team.' I think their legacy is they went about it the right way -- they worked their tails off and they won. They won and they won and they won. They kept winning. That just fuels the next generation to want to keep carrying that on. The history of what’s gone on here, who’s come through these doors and worn those birds on the bat.

I think this is nauseating. Also, true. There is something to be said for creating a culture, and much, much more to be said for maintaining it. The Reds had this. Once upon a time.

WHY I STILL ADMIRE A. MCCUTCHEN, even though he was sadly lacking last year. SI.com asked him if injuries caused his downfall:

“My 60% is better than anything. Playing hurt and playing injured are two different things. We’re going to have those things that don’t feel too good, but if you can do it, you do it. The last thing I want is to lay my head on the pillow and say, ‘I could have played, I could have done more.’ If I’m not physically able to get out there, then I won’t be out there. But if I’m capable, I will be.”

If you are a star and can play, you play. Your 60 percent is better than most others 100 percent.

AND FINALLY, BECAUSE IT’S MY BLOG. Today is my last day typing TML in my old house. TML will resume at home next Wednesday, in the new place.

Which is OK, I guess. In an I-can’t-fight-it kinda way.

Growing up and then early in my career, I lived in places where I barely unpacked. I spanned the suburban-DC globe between grade school and college graduation: Silver Spring, Kensington, Bethesda, Potomac, Rockville. After graduation: Baltimore, Norfolk, Dallas, New York, Here.

Given that migratory history, I decided my kids wouldn’t be nomads. They’d have a house that would truly be their home. I turned down jobs for that permanence. A sense of place is priceless.

And now it’s done.

I have a great view from my current office window: Woods and an eastern exposure. I see the sun rise. In the winter, I write in the dark until that daily miracle happens. (The sunrise, not the writing.) Over the years here, I’ve seen owls and hawks in the trees, foxes and rabbits and too many deer to mention. Squirrels are Wallendas, daily.

To say I’m going to miss this place is putting it mildly. My new office has a view of the street.

I guess the lesson is: Never take what you’ve got for granted. Joni Mitchell sang in Big Yellow Taxi, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?”

We all have it better than we think we do, at that moment. For the past 29 years, I’ve had it great. Maybe the next era will be even better. Maybe.